You might be able to get a couple bucks for the distributor.... most backyard mechanics would replace electronics before a whole distributor unless bearings failed... so, find someone with a distributor who's bearings have failed and you might be able to make someone's day. Either way, it's a good part to have for testing purposes too. It might be just a coil that was bad/tired.
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The coil was replaced recently to fix a no spark issue that happened about 6 weeks ago. I could have bought the parts online, but didn't want to deal with the hassle of waiting or the question mark of what is a good brand and what is not. The fuel pump the mechanic installed has a life-time warranty. He did install my spark plug wires for free, which the mechanic near where I live was going to charge me $87 to do. So I saved $45 there. It's true mechanics charge a lot. But the headache of trying to fix stuff myself is well worth it. I tried doing the rear breaks with a friend once and it was a nightmare. Mechanics have tons of experience since that's all they do day in and day out. Yes, they make a small profit on parts.. but overall in general you bring the car in broken and they return it fixed.

Anyway, sounds like my old distributor is not working properly seeing as the mechanic reinstalled it to see if it was part of the problem. Since the fuel pump ultimately solved all the problems, he wanted to be sure it wasn't just the fuel pump that was the culprit.

There are other parts inside the distributor other than just the coil. The names of them at the moment escape me. One I can remember is called the ignitor. There's two magnet type electronics too.
Typically an ignitor is replaced at the same time as a coil, but not always.

I agree with your sentiment about mechanics. If you can find good, trustworthy mechanics, you'll do very well. Some people just don't want to/have the time, patience, skill, etc to do their own work. Other people would just rather enjoy the convenience of having a place to go back to when something stops working again. Piece of mind plays a big role.

My father used to do all the work (at least the maintenance side of things, perhaps not transmission rebuilds!) to his cars/trucks. He turned 54 last year. He told me that his new truck is the first one he has owned that he has never seen the underside of. He said, "and I don't want to either!" He drives it to the dealership for work. They have one of those pull up to the garage door, it opens, you pull in and hand someone the keys and walk to the waiting room type places. It's drive through. You never have to get out of the truck in the winter, etc.

I like to work on cars. I like to solve problems myself. I'm dirt poor and don't really have an option otherwise anyway!
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Holy carp, $87 to replace four spark plug wires? I hope that included parts!

Although I like to encourage people to work on their own cars, I understand and can't fault anyone for having a pro take care of it. I just dropped my truck off at the shop for stuff I would rather not try (steel brake lines) and my car is going there once my budget recovers (exhaust manifold - I'm sure I'd snap those bolts off or round them).

Like benfrogg, I like troubleshooting and fixing stuff, and there's not really a choice anyway since I haven't got the budget for any other option.

Honda's use a steel wheel with teeth and a magnetic sensor, called a reluctance sensor. There's three toothed wheels in the dist. The one on the end of the shaft is a one tooth sync or home trigger. The reluctance sensors are the black boxes next to them. Continuing down the shaft past the metal plate is a 4 tooth sensor and a 24 tooth sensor.

The 1 tooth sensor is needed for sequential injection. It's used to signal the start of a new ignition cycle. It's used so that the ECU knows which exact cylinder is next in order of firing. The 4 tooth wheel is the actual wheel that timing is marked against. A tooth will signal before each ignition event so that the ECU can use it as a timing marker to calculate when to fire the ignition. The 24 tooth is design to detect miss-fires.

Anyway I would try to get the old distributor back from your mechanic. Its worth some money and the distributor housings are hard to find now.

In your case I would guess that the top reluctance sensor had picked up some metallic debris. The top one is what the ecu looks for to determine if the engine is rotating or not. Then it will activate the fuel pump if it gets a signal of movement.

The other thing it could be is the coil or the spring that rest on top that makes contact to the center of the dist. cap. These are very sensitive to being installed correctly. I have seen this on a few different Honda's.

Just to clarify and to add to what others have said: A good mechanic is worth it.

...and I too am very limited in what I'm able to do or capable of in a reasonable amount of time, especially without the right tools. So you know what? Take it to the guy who makes a living off of the stuff and work at getting a bargain if you can. It's true good mechanics need to be paid, but it depends on the job, the specialty of a particular job perhaps, and knowing the line between a good deal/fair price/and even the overpriced.

Just to clarify and to add to what others have said: A good mechanic is worth it.

...and I too am very limited in what I'm able to do or capable of in a reasonable amount of time, especially without the right tools.

I forgot about the issue of getting it done in a timely manner. With extra vehicles that becomes a non-issue...I can park a vehicle for however long it takes me to get it done while I drive the other. That also makes it easy to chase parts and tools in the middle of the job!

I collect tools. I buy them when I find them cheap, even though I don't need them at the time. I eventually need most of them. Expensive specialty tools I get from the parts store loaner program.